The Last Time
by sins with tragedies
Summary: Saying goodbye to her was a dreadful thing, but her return was something he anticipated in his waking moments. (one-shot; epilogue)


**The first time** she walked into Quindecim, she had already been a peculiar case.

Like other guests, she knew nothing of her identity or her past.

But she was fully aware that she was dead, that she was in the afterlife.

And that had been the reason he wasn't able to judge her at first.

**The first time **she walked out of Quindecim, he had already passed his judgement,

and she knew perfectly well where she was headed.

He had smiled at her;

she was the first to ever see his smile.

Her eyes had welled up, but he knew enough to know that she wasn't sad or grieving.

Such peculiar beings humans are,

she was crying out of happiness.

And as the elevator doors closed, there was the unspoken promise of a reunion.

**The second time **she walked in, an odd sense of nostalgia filled him.

He had smiled at her more than he smiled at anyone else,

and at first, she found it a bit weird.

She found everything about her situation weird;

she didn't know who she was, where she was,

wasn't even aware she was dead.

And most painfully,

she didn't know who he was.

**The second time **she stepped into the elevator to depart Quindecim,

her eyes widened in realization just as the doors closed.

She remembered.

But she remembered a bit too late.

**The third time** she came back, he lowered his expectations and tried not to act so familiar.

Like before, she was wary of her situation.

But unlike before, she remembered everything she needed to remember in time.

Before she left for **the third time**,

she stayed a little longer.

She called him by his name and for the first time,

he experienced a certain heat in his cheeks.

_"Decim."_

It was the way she said it,

the familiarity of her voice, the softness, the warmth.

He had missed her company for years,

and all he gets is a spare ten minutes.

**The fourth time **she returned, she scared him.

She had played a little too hard, a little too aggressively.

She stood on a fault line, and it scared him to pass judgement.

But thanks to her ever so human competitor,

she was saved.

**The fourth time **she left, he watched her leave with relief in his chest.

He will be seeing her again someday.

When she returned **the fifth time**, she had looked at him oddly.

His was a face she knew;

a face that haunted her dreams,

a face her hands ached to sketch in her waking moments.

He took note of how odd it is that in her most previous life, she was a painter

and he soon learned that she didn't even know how to skate.

**The fifth time **she left, she still had no recollection of who he was.

But she had planted a kiss on his cheek,

leaving another burning sensation by his cheekbone.

She had laughed at him as she stepped into the elevator,

laughed at how red his cheeks were.

**She had come and gone many more times.**

Sometimes she remembered him and sometimes she did not,

but either way,

he was comforted by her presence.

He liked hearing the calm in her voice and the music in her laughter,

he wanted to hold her when she cried and broke down

and when her knees gave and she trembled in shock.

On occasions when she did know who he was,

she would stay and chat with him.

She would tell him about her life and he would listen,

though he already knew everything there was to know of her life.

Saying goodbye to her was a dreadful thing,

but her return was something he anticipated in his every waking moment.

But when she left **the last time**,

she had flashed him that smile.

The smile that was etched in the back of his mind,

the smile he saw when he closed his eyes.

_That smile._

He had tried to return the smile.

But before the elevator doors closed, an impulse came over him.

He absentmindedly grabbed her by the collar,

and pressed his lips against hers.

He pushed her back in before she could comprehend what had happened,

and the tears rolled down his cheeks when the doors finally closed.

His knees buckled and gave underneath him and he fell helplessly onto the floor.

There was an empty ache in his chest.

Never again...

He looked up at the mask at the top of the elevator.

_Never again..._

_Goodbye, Chiyuki-san._

* * *

**A/N: I'm so sorry about that.**

**For Erika, Wendy, Izzy, and Merve (who still needs to watch it).**

**love, Mustgang's perverted baby.**


End file.
